| 1600s |
|
Officers in the Royal Navy received the first pension scheme |
| 1800s |
|
Bismarck led the way in retirement
planning by introducing old age pensions in Germany in the 1880s. |
| 1900s |
1908 |
Old Age Pensions Act. The first pensions were paid from
1/1/1909 |
| 1940s |
1942 |
Sir William Beveridge defined the welfare state in his
Social insurance and Allied Services paper |
|
1946 |
National Insurance Act – introduced a basic, flat-rate,
contributory pension for everybody |
|
1947 |
the complications began as tax relief and lump sums were
capped |
| 1950s |
1959 |
National Insurance Act – the ‘graduated pension’ was
introduced to top-up the state scheme |
| 1970s |
1975 |
Social Security Pensions Act – indexed pensions to
earnings and defined SERPS (State Earnings Related pension Scheme) to
replace the Graduated Pension. If you had enough private provision, you
could ‘contract out’ and pay less National insurance |
|
1978 |
SERPS launched. |
| 1980s |
1980 |
Social Security Act – the indexation of pensions to earnings was replaced by indexation to the consumer price index. |
|
1986 |
Financial Services Act – set the rules for investment
business whilst allowing taxation of surpluses in pension funds |
|
1986 |
Social Security Act – encouraged contracting out of SERPS
and into funded personal pension schemes |
|
1987/8 |
employees able to opt-out of occupational schemes and into
personal pensions |
| 1990s |
1995 |
Pensions Act – introduced regulatory and compensatory
safeguards in response to Robert Maxwell’s appropriation of occupational
pension fund money |
|
1999 |
Minimum Income Guarantee introduced for poor pensioners |
| 2000s |
2001 |
Stakeholder Pensions introduced |
|
2002 |
SERPS was replaced by the State Second pension Scheme |
|
2003 |
Pension Credit introduced |
|
2004 |
Finance Act and Pensions Act – Pensions Protection Fund
initiated |
Oct 2004
Pensions Commission report. Some conclusions included:
-
UK Pensions system – the state’s intention to reduce provision given an ageing population is not balanced by a thriving private pension sector: “The underlying level of funded pension saving is falling rather than rising to meet the demographic challenge, pension right accrual is becoming still more unequal.”
-
Non-pension saving & housing - house ownership is not enough to provide retirement money: house prices are uncertain, the house value may be needed to fund long-term care, and “housing wealth is not significantly higher among those with least pension rights”
-
Voluntary saving is hampered by “the bewildering complexity of the UK pension system, state and private combined.” The cumulative effect of past decisions “has been to create confusion and mistrust.”